Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Ooooo Francis Bacon day. My first ever recollection of a "Francis Bacon" was seeing his work in the Tate Gallery in Liverpool. I was stood looking at one of his paintings from a distance and a snotty woman came flouncing in and took one look at the painting and winced at her gallery buddy and shook her head, on closer inspection she read out in a surprised voice "Francis Bacon", her expression changed into a face of admiration and approval, it was then I realised that even in the art world people can also be fickle enough to pretend to like something simply because of the name.

Moving onto the first painting by Francis Bacon, this painting looks like there is a burst water pipe and the red arrow is pointing out the point of origin. There appears to be part of a newspaper strewn on the floor that looks like litter so maybe this is suggesting it is outside somewhere. Behind the blast of water looks like it could be a turnstile of some sort. The blue at the top of the painting is like that of a clear sunny day along with the black underneath that could be there to represent the shadows. The floor looks like a sandy colour so it could be a path leading to a beach? The whole painting doesn't seem to make much sense to me and it could even be a painting that was meant to be something else and realising his error, 'Bacon' painted madly across the middle, walked away, only to return to the painting and notice in his madness it now looks like water bursting from from some kind of hole in the ground or pipe.

This second painting is a portrait of someone painted in 'Bacons's' famous and very recognisable style. It looks to be a man in a dark room who is wearing a dark suit. The way the face is painted reminds me of looking at someone through some sort of kaleidoscope or a window which is distorted like the glass ones used in bathrooms. If you stand away from the painting you can get a better idea of what the person actually looks like as there isn't much detail available. Although the persons face is distorted the mind seems to be able to piece together the right hand side of the face as the left appears to be in darkness. The way the face is painted looks like the paint has been slowly pushed around and left in random places using curves and swirls, is this to show movement or is it just his style?